kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Nov 10 - 01:07 PM

We played this in the 60's. If I recall it went: I'm going downtown to smoke my pie and I won't be back 'til broad daylight. If you let on of my children go; I'll spank you black and blue with my old rubber shoe and here's an example. Wth apprporiate smack being given. There was a with who came and took the children one by one and the the mom had to go and get into the witch's house to rescue them. We played it often.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 09:49 PM

I played that game gazillions of time as a child in the mid-sixties at my elem. school in rural western York County SC. I am a music teacher now and taught one of my classes a play party song/game called "Draw A Bucket of Water" and encouraged them to play it on the playground. I was shocked when they said they wanted to but could not because they are not allowed to touch each other on the playground (even in a game!). It is a sad world we live in folks. Anyhow, I was telling them about games we played when I was a kid and I tried to tell them about the gamed we played that we called "Black Widow Spider". I remembered the rhyme and pretty much of the play, but had forgotten the ice cream and crooked/straight road part so I googled it and got this post...good memories! I learned it by watching and listening to older kids play it. It was pretty much a childhood tradition kind of game as I recall. Thanks for sharing!

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,sdallenhou
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 01:25 PM

In North Texas in the 1960s, it went like this:

I'm going to town to smoke my pipe,
And I won't be back 'til Saturday night.
And if the Blue Witch Gets Here,
I'll tan your hide, tan your hide, tan your hide.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,kate
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 02:52 AM

Yes! Also Michigan (Port Huron)- but in our neighborhood it went on: "...And if you dare let anyone in / I'll whack you with my rolling pin / Until you're red, white and BLUE." And yes, it is related to the Wtich in the Well. In ours, the witch turned the children into things and the mother had to turn them back by guessing what they were by the noises they made.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST
Date: 19 May 11 - 04:19 PM

WELL, Welll from Detroit, MICH. MID 40'S



I have an ending that goes

    I"ll whip you black and I'll whip you blue
   and I'll whip you too, my daughter Sue

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 20 May 11 - 01:24 AM

MtheGM, thank you for mentioning this rhyme in the "Cat O'Nine Tails" thread.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,kathleen
Date: 29 May 11 - 08:57 PM

We played this game in the 60s in Garden City, MI. (suburb of Detroit) Remember the lines "I'm goin downtown to smoke my pipe, and I won't be back till Saturday night. I'll whip you black, I'll whip you blue, especially you my daughter Sue." I can't remember the rules of the game, but it ended up in a chase like tag. I remember playing on the porch, and my sister remembers playing in the basement.My mom says we use to make a LOt of noise when we played.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: dulcimer42
Date: 29 May 11 - 09:57 PM

FransDotir: Wow! I loved reading your description of the game. Brought back memories I had forgotten. I KNOW that's exactly how we played it. Amazing how such a structured roll play game spread over such a wide area. I wonder if you were in Michigan. That's where we played it.   That part about playing the hands like a piano, I had totally forgotten that part.   When you're nearing age 70, reminiscing is so special.   I would think kids today would have a hard time relating to and playing this game, but we spent a lot of time with it back in the 40s or 50s.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,ebardeen
Date: 05 Jun 11 - 11:29 AM

In the finger lakes of New York state (Geneva), here is how we played the game: All the kids sat on our on front porch, and one person "the dad" stood at the foot of the porch and said: "I'm going to town to smoke my pipe and I won't be pack til saturday niht. Poof, Poof."    Then "he" would go the a maple tree (notthe biggest tree, and "pretend" call the kids: "I need some old rags." Kid: I used them all on my shows last night." Dad: "Well, I'll be home." The dad comes back to the kids on the porch and looks at their hands and says "dirty, dirty, dirty, go down to the well and wash". The kids run to a tree on the other side of the yard where they get cake or pie names (I don't remember if there if they pick them or there is someone there.) When ?the dad? the witch? guesses the cake or pie name, they run back to the porch and try not to get caught. We played this game endlessly. I always wondered where it came from. Thanks!

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jun 11 - 12:07 AM

I played it in Pittsburgh PA. but we had a red white and blue rubber shoe . Wasn'tthere also a wolf?

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,alipatch
Date: 18 Dec 11 - 11:49 AM

!
We also played this game. We used the same format as guest FransDotir, with one addition. When the mother came home and saw Sue was gone she asked the remaining kids:
Where's Sue?
Kids answer: Upstairs.
How'd she get there?
Table and chairs.
What if she fell?
I don't care!
And then the mother would pretend to
'beat them black and blue'

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,alipatch
Date: 18 Dec 11 - 11:53 AM

We played Mother-Witch all summer during the 40s in Berkley, Michigan

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Jan 12 - 09:41 PM

We also played this game in Tampa Florida in the sixties! Sounds kinda dumb now, but we played it often.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Jan 12 - 12:50 PM

Sharon Sinclair.played this game in the 40's growing up as Sharon Fuller in Manlius, NY and it has been swirling in my head for years. Couldn't remember enough of it when my kids were little to teach it to them. Thank you for being able to find it in the internet.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,Warren Michigan
Date: 05 Mar 12 - 09:22 PM

So fun, we played this game when I was a kid and we had so much fun... Some of the rules sound so familiar. Our version was; I'm going downtown to smoke my pipe I won't be back till Saturday night, I'll beat you black, I'll beat you blue, especially you my daughter Sue.

We played it on the front porch as well and I remember the witch asking Sue to burrow different food products and when sue would leave the witch would take a child, until all were gone including Sue. Mother would come home and I remember a child pretending to be a piano, and a table and chair... all this acting out... Well anyway this was a riot to read and reminisce. Like all of you I thought it was something we made up and it's delightful to see others played as well.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,guest from iowa
Date: 10 May 12 - 03:10 PM

we played this in iowa in the late 60s early 70s! think we called it red devil though???

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,Maralyn Dossey jabour
Date: 14 May 12 - 08:33 PM

Our version which I learned in Biggsville, Illinois, was so much fun, I tought to all the kids I baby-sat for when we moved to nearby Monmouth with the result that I never had just my charges to care for, but all the kids on the block.
Mom was the pipe smoker, the witch was the conniving kid stealer, lots of fun squealing and trying to escape mom's spanking every Saturday night, and a guessing game after each spanking when the witch returned with the child. The basic rhyme:

IOur version which I learned in western Illinois, was so much fun, I taught it to all the kids I baby-sat for with the result that I never had just my charges to care for, but all the kids on the block.
Mom was the pipe smoker, the witch was the conniving kid stealer, lots of fun squealing and trying to escape mom's spanking every Saturday night, and a guessing game after each spanking when the witch returned with the child. The basic rhyme:

I'm a-goin downtown to smoke my pipe
And I won't be back til Saturday night.
By the hair on my chiny-chin-chin,
If you dare let that old witch in,u
I'll spank you with my rubber shoe
Until your hide is black and blue.

When the witch comes, she's disguised as "a poor widow" with nothing to feed her starving children.  She appeals to the older (charitably sympathetic)  child to fetch a jar of fruit from the cellar against the admonitions of the youngest (fearfully suspicious) child who insists this violates their Mother's instructions. Witch steals one kid, oldest child returns from cellar to angry and frantic chiding from the remaining siblings. Mom comes home, spanks everyone,

Witch returns with (imaginary) paper bag containing the kidnapped child now  transformed to a kind of fruit known only to the two of them. Informs Mom she can have kid back only if Mom can guess what kind of fruit the kid is now. A successful guess transforms the kid back to him:herself and Witch leaves, disgruntled  Otherwise Witch takes the fruit (kid) back to her house. Kids argue about why they guessed wrong or who can take credit for a correct guess creating such a rumpus that of course Mom recites the poem again and heads off for a good, long smoke.  kids fall for the Witch's "widow" scam again, etc, with Witch bringing all the stolen kids back for Mom to potentially redeem following each round of spankings. Kids can end up passing back and forth between the two antagonists with no end tho the Witch declares herself winner if she succeeds in getting all the kids.

I wonder what it is about old women with too many  children...is there a connection between this and the woman who lived in a shoe?  
Maralyn Dossey

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST
Date: 23 May 12 - 03:39 PM

Fascinating how these things spread around the country. We played a variation of this in Hoquiam, a small town in Washington State in the middle 50s. I could only remember the "going downtown to smoke my pipe" refrain and something about not letting the old Witch Hazel in. We also had something about children being turned in to pies.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jul 12 - 05:10 PM

Yes. We also called this Sunday-Monday-Tuesday. Needed lots of kids, named after days of the week, and a witch and a mother. Mother would announce "I'm going downtown to smoke my pipe, and I won't be back til [Tuesday, etc.] night. You take care of the door. The [ice/milk/coal, etc.] man is coming, and the money's upstairs. Don't let the old witch in." Mother goes away, one chld is the door, witch comes and knocks on child's back and claims to be the [ice] man. Child runs to get the money, and the ice man takes Tuesday (etc.) Mother comes back and discovers child is missing and cries, "Where's Tuesday?"

When all the children have been kidnapped the mother goes in search of them, into the woods to the witch's house. Witch serves tea and cookies. Mother notices a beautiful organ on the opposite wall, comments on it and asks to play it. The keys of the organ are the children's hands, and as mother presses the keys, the children say, "Ma-ma..ma-ma..." Mother chases the witch and the children are rescued.

I've never known anyone who could tell me where this is from! Can you? My aunt, age 81, played it as a child. We have English ancestry. Could it be from England?

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jul 12 - 12:47 PM

We played this in Herkimer NY on steuben street in the early 1950's. it was always a dad who "went downtown to smoke his pipe"..then the section with the witch, although I can't remember the exact words..and then "pies".   Often we just played "pies" since the little kids got bored or couldn't remember the whole long script. For pies we simply turned the scene into a store keeper who you had to pay with a slap on the hand the then chase the pie if the customer named the right pie, the kid popped up and ran to the streetlight and then back hoping to not get tagged. Sometimes we varied it with an ice cream store or colors.

Carolyn Egbert

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,sue
Date: 02 Sep 12 - 12:49 AM

I have such fond memories of pllaying this game with all ot our cousins in the 50 s in Antwerp in northern new York state. Our rhyme was "I'm going Down town. To smoke my pipe and I won't be back till broad day light, don't let the old witch in.
When the mother finally we t to get her children back she would be send down different streets, such as prickly street or slipery road or muddy lane. This was done with lots of acting. Then the mother would shout out Names of pies. It would end with all the children home. In our case home was a big alder tree in our grandparents front yard.

I think this game is English In origin. It is very similar to the book "heggity peggity " by Donald and Audrey Wood.
I am so glad to have found this site. Thanks

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Sep 12 - 03:33 PM

I grew up in the 50's in Detroit and we played this game as I' going downtown to smoke my pipe and I won't be back til Saturday night,,,,I'll whip you black, I'll whip you blue, especially you my daughter Sue (person chosen)

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,guest, colette
Date: 25 Jan 13 - 01:34 PM

I grew up in South Bend, Indiana in the 1950's and we played this game. We would say:

I'm going to town to smoke my pipe
I won't be back 'til Saturday night
and if anyone lets the old witch in
I'll spank you with my rubber heel.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,minnesotakid
Date: 04 Feb 13 - 02:41 PM

When I was a child in Parkers Prairie MN in the late 30's and 40th we played this game called don 't let the old witch get you. There was the mother, witch and any number of children. The mother was the best role to play. She had more to say and do. She would say to the children. I'm going uptown to smoke my pipe and won't be til' Saturday night and don't let the old witch get you. The old with would come and say to the first child. Go to the cellar and get me a jar of peas. The child would go to the cellar get the peas..While she was gone the witch would steal a child.
The mother would come back and ask where is so and so and the children would say the old witch got her. This would go on until all the children were taken.
The mother would go to the witches house, recite a poem, which can't remember. I know it would involve bloody feet and a glass slipper.
Does anyone know the ending. I loved this game. I've asked many people through the years if they played it. No one had ever heard of it.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,999
Date: 04 Feb 13 - 03:08 PM

Heckedy Peg--it's worth a google.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jul 13 - 10:56 AM

I also played this game in Minneapolis, Mn. I only remember the first part, but it was back in the 50's.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Aug 13 - 01:18 PM

I grew up in Saginaw MI and it was so exciting to see the version from Saginaw Mi. as that is exactly how I learned it in the 50's and none of my childhood friends remembered it and I was wondering if I imagined it....
"I'm going downtown to fetch a wife and I won't be back till broad day light but I'll beat you black and I'll beat you blue, if you don't take care of my darling sister Sue!"I

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 19 Aug 13 - 01:29 PM

"Fetch a wife" a striking variant on "smoke my pipe"; but interesting to observe that the SM element remains!

~M~

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,GrannyFranny
Date: 19 Jul 14 - 11:14 PM

We played this game at school in Talbotville, Ontario, Canada. (Talbotville is between London and St. Thomas.) This would have been in the mid-50's. Our version started with the "mother" saying:
I'm going to town to smoke my pipe
And I won't be back 'til Saturday night,
And I'm leaving YOU in charge.
The rest of the game was pretty much as others have described, with the witch capturing children, the street names being acted out, the children being given names from a specific category (e.g., pies, trees, etc.). I was so young when I first played this (6 years old), that I really didn't understand what was going on. For some reason (maybe because the older girls moved on to high school?), the game faded out.
By the way, our version was called "Old Mammy Witch".

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,Crazcanine
Date: 02 Aug 15 - 01:51 PM

I grew up in Eastern KY. We were in the historic Hatfield and McCoy feud area. It was in the late 70's early 80's we played this game with neighbor kids on the steps of an old church. There was an old outhouse on the property, made a perfect "well" for our witch in game!
I don't remember the "I'm going downtown" part, we played if I remember right that Mom was going to the store and we were not to get dirty.
When she returned she calls us for dinner, the kids would line up and she wanted to check our hands, she would come by and say dirty, dirty as she went down the line.
Then she would say to go to the well and wash your hands.......the person playing witch would appear and kids would scream and run back to the Mom.
She didn't believe their cries of "Witch in the well" and sends them back threatening to whip them.
Kids go again to "well" , witch appears, kids run screaming back.
Mom gets aggravated and leads them back to well, the witch jumps out chasing them all and whoever she catches is the witch next.
That is what I remember........we too thought it was a game passed to us from older siblings and that someone local had made it up.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST,Just me a good ole boy from Illinois 70s ver
Date: 11 Jun 17 - 03:42 AM

We played the game my 2 brothers and 3 sisters. We would do one of several picking games like, bubblegum bubblegum in a dish or engine engine number nine to determine the mother and witch. The others were children. The children would choose a name from a predetermined catagory like news anchors, actors, singers which ever category we chose but all the names had to be in the same catagory. The mom would leave and say, "I'm going to town to smoke my pipe, I won't be back til Saturday night. If the old witch comes don't let her in or I'll beat you black and blue with my ole rubber shoe! The mom would leave, and the children would hide. The witch would come and call out names based on the chosen category. When a correct name was called out the child had to run for a predetermined base without the witch tagging them. If the witch tagged them they were sent to the witches house (another predetermined area), and the mom would come and take the child by the hand,they would run hand in hand trying to get to the base with out getting tagged by the witch. If tagged the child had to go back to the witches house and start over with the mom. All the while the witch is still calling out names of the others, and trying to catch them. If all gets to the base the witch stays the same person. The one who doesn't make it back to base after getting caught becomes the next witch, and the witch becomes the mom.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: GUEST
Date: 07 May 21 - 12:22 AM

My mother would NEVER let us "smoke a pipe" so i grew up playing. "I'm going downtown to meet Mr Brown and I won't be back til ..." like the above version different days refered to different children. And, yeah, no witch either. Blue Island, Illinois, 1960s.

Subject: RE: kids' game: I'm goin' down town to smoke my pipe
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 May 21 - 09:36 AM

This reminnds me of a song, not a game, from my childhood, especially the line about going to the well to wash my toe / when I got there the water was low / what time is it, old witch, old witch, what time is it, old witch?
Old witch, old witch, she lives in a ditch
And combs her hair with a hickory switch
She lives on [various gross things]
And if you go near she'll [various rhyming horrors]
Then in the next verse you go to the well to wash something else and the water is something rhyming [hand / sand, etc].

The song starts, I think, Old woman, old woman, my [something alliterative that rhymes with the forthcoming washable body part).

The only weird Tag game I recall is Yellow Fever, where if It tags you you are It too but the children out of sight don't kbiw it. What a pandemic game, eh.